Medicare Medicaid

The two sides have staked out their claims on how to solve the problem with Medicare and they are both right so regardless of which way we go we will begin to make some headway. The Obama plan is to set up a government committee of 12 members who will decide what treatments are available. The Ryan plan offers vouchers to people who can then purchase a plan through a group of private insurers. Both of these approaches use rationing to reduce cost and that is the only logical way to go. Whenever any benefit is reduced or eliminated there will be good arguments as to why this particular procedure should be allowed but as time passes people will realize that this is the only way to save the program. It comes down to the simple fact that everyone cannot have every procedure that is medically available and someone or some insurance company will have to make these tough choices. Unbeknownst to most people this process of rationing has been going on for many years in both Medicare and private insurance. Last year when the phrase “Death Panels” was coined everyone panicked but upon further evaluation it was revealed that by the way that doctors present options the idea of dying with dignity was often chosen over life extending treatments. It is time for people to grow up and face the fact that there is not enough money to do everything for everyone. Once both political parties have the courage to explain this quandary to their constituents we will begin to take the necessary steps to save Medicare. Let’s hope this happens before the whole program goes down the drain, which by the way is currently scheduled for 2018.
Since Medicaid is financed with ongoing funds from the federal and state governments there is no date when it will go broke but it faces the same cost problems that Medicare does and the same cure will be needed. We must ration. This is a very difficult problem since about one in four Medicaid recipients are in eldercare facilities. There is new technology available that can keep many of these people in their homes. For about $10,000 most houses can have the bath modified to accept people in wheel chairs. Instead of paying out $7,000 per month to stay in a care facility many people can stay in their homes where they would rather be. This is only one example. In the future it may be necessary that families take on more responsibility as they did not that many years ago. People who use Medicaid for their health insurance will have to face rationing just as others in private insurance will face.